Wine Beats Other Types of Alcohol in Reduction of T2DM Risk

TUESDAY, May 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Wine is associated with a greater decrease in the risk of type 2 diabetes than beer or spirits, according to a review published online May 11 in the Journal of Diabetes Investigation.

Jin Huang, Ph.D., from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the relationship between intake of specific types of alcoholic beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes. Data were included from three prospective cohort studies, with 397,296 study participants and 20,641 cases of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers found that wine consumption correlated with a significant reduction in the risk of type 2 diabetes compared with no or rare alcohol consumption (pooled relative risks, 0.85), while consumption of beer or spirits was associated with a slight trend toward decreasing risk of type 2 diabetes (relative risk, 0.96 and 0.95, respectively). There was a U-shaped correlation between all three alcohol types and type 2 diabetes. The peak risk reduction was seen for 20 to 30 g/day for wine and beer and for 7 to 15 g/day of spirits, with decreases of 20, 9, and 5 percent, respectively.

"This study indicated that wine may be more helpful for protection against type 2 diabetes than beer or spirits," the authors write.